Jax coach, Scott Arniel, smelled trouble early on in Buffalo on Friday night.
"I had a feeling the first 4-5 shifts of the game taht our effort was enough to compete. Buffalo was skating, we were not".
On the rotten start for his team:
"For as bad as we were in the first period, we were just as bad in the second period",
On the chippiness:
'Physical game. obviously we were pissed off about the way we were playing. Its either roll over and play dead or come back", Arniel.
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******* 3rd Period
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Stafford emerges from the Buffalo room and nearly beats Garon on a clean and mean breakaway! Gutsy effort by Staff to come back to the ice after being shaken up.
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Jared Boll cranks Stafford with a questionable high hit and sends the Buffalo forward to the room. Montador jumped Boll and settled the score. momentys later, Pat Kaleta found Dorsett in a scrum and way-laid the CBUS forward with three dozen left handed bombs to the cranium!
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McCormick lets Commodore know that its not OK to board Kaleta. Unfortunately, Mc gets rung up for extra penalty. Well worth bit to protect a teammate.
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Commodore still sits for his jackassery.... he should have gotten the boot for his gutless hit on Kaleta.
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Sabres lead on scoreboard and on the shot clock. 29--12 after 40. Garon has been stable, otherwise, this thing could be 6-0 Buffalo.
Looks to me like the Jax are tired and they cannot answer Buffalo's speed. The Sabres have been sleeping in their own beds and have not played since alst saturday night in Montreal.
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2nd Period:
All Buffalo!
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Sabres PP---- @ 19:15, Commodore gets 5 for boarding. Clark gets 2 for roughing. Leopold and Monty 2 each for roughing
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Scott Arniel's group look tired, as they are a beat or two behind Buffalo's speed tonight. The Jax lost in Nashville Thursady night and got into Buffalo early Friday morning.
*****
With Ethan Moreau in the clink for interfering with Miller, Vanek and Roy find Stafford for his fifth of the season. PPG #2 for Buffalo. Staff has a multi-point effort in his first period and a half back after an 11 game injury. Nice job. This is the type of effort that Lindy was hoping for from 21.
*****
Scoring change on Pommer goal. Give Vanek the second assist, not Myers. Stafford gets the primary apple.
I really like the way that Lindy is rolling all four lines. He's getting a lot of energy and chances from his top 6 tonight.
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@ 5:59, Voracek thought he scored.... high stick... after further review...no goal...
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This has been by far the best game that Jochen Hecht has played for Buffalo this season. He's asserting himself in all three zones. He's skating well, distributing the rock, and playing an aggressive game. This is such a tease. He needs to play with this same swaggah every night! Lindy is looking for heroes and its about time Hecht stands up to the challenge!
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1st Period:
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2-0 Sabres
vanek clogs the dance floor in front of Garon... Meyrs and staff get puck to the net... Pommer scores on the backdoor open net. PPG.
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Roy and Myers at PP points with Pommer, Vanek, and Staff; Ennis, Gerbe, Hecht, Reggie and Leopold on unit 2.
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@ 11:48, Russell takes interference... Sabres PP
*****
The 6 days rest looks to have helped Buffalo's skating game. Fast hands and fast feet thus far
***
Gerbe feeds Roy, who nearly scores. garon is leaving fat rebounds about the crease tonight.
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Hecht is feelin it tonight. He and Kaleta make a nifty 2 on 2 play and nearly score at 8:39 of 1st
*** 1-0 Buffalo
Broken Hecht finds taps in the garbage after Ennis broke in all alone on Garon.
Grier sprung Ennis on the break with a beauty of a stretch pass from the Buffalo left wing wall. Ennis drove the blue and Hecht cleaned up
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42-9-26 get the puck deep and get to work quickly. Fast- start to this game.
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Touching pregame moment of silence for former Buffalo News hockey writer, Jim Kelley. Kelley lsot his battle with cancer earlier this week.
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FILATOV SCRATCHED; BUTLER, CONNOLLY, AND RIVET FOR B-LO
*****
Stafford, Mike Weber and Mike Grier were the last three Sabres on the ice for the warm up. Staff looks focused.
***
I just had a tremendous conversation with one of my favourie Buffalo sabres of all time, Mr. Rick Dudley. I propped Rick for his Thrashwaks success this season. In typical Duds fashion, he smiled, said Thanks, and humbly gave the credit to his former Sabre teammate and Tampa Bay colleague, Craig Ramsay. "Craig is making the difference. he has the team playing at a high level. The players really play well for him."
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Drew Stafford draws back into the starting lineup tonight. He's missed the past 11 games with an upper body deal. Lindy is counting on #21 to skate, and create offense tonight. Ditto Nathan Gerbe, who will skate with Roy and Vanek tonight.
Stafford will run the wall with Luke Adam and Pommer.
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6:27pm: BIG game for Buffallo tonight. The Jax will not go quietly into that good night. Scott Arniel spoke today about how his troops would storm the rested Buffalo squad early and often tonight. The Sabres have not played an NHL game since last Saturday's road loss in Montreal. They scrimmaged amongst themselves during the week in practice, howevr, nothing compares to game speed and intensity.
Will Buffalo answer the bell?
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The Sabres are 5-4-1 in their last ten. To a man, this result is not good enough. Playing .500 hockey is like kissing your sister. Not a lot of fun--- to say nothing of being very creepy. They enter tonight's home tilt vs. CBUS in 11th place in the East, one point ahead of Florida and Tronna, and only six points ahead of cellar dwellers, the Islanders.
Let me overstate the obvious:
They MUST WIN tonight, and then repeat it tomorrow night in Kanata. Failure is not an option.
This is the crossroads of the Sabres season. Two wins in the next 48 hours will help to propel the inconsistent Sabres northward into the top 8-10 teams of the tightly compacted Eastern standings. Two losses in the next 48 hours would be catastrpohic. A split leaves the Sabres in the same rut that they have been stuck in since October.
It comes down to this: Win and stay in. Lose and go home.
Lindy's Lads are staring down the barrell of the metaphorical gun that is being held in their collective grille. Playing .500 hockey from here on out will doom the Sabres and they will not qualify for the postseason. How is Lindy going to inspire this group to play .700 hockey from here on out? Thats what its gonna take in order to kick the team into four wheel drive and climb up the icy slope. .
The Sens are in the same boat. They were pimp slapped and shutout by San Jose on Thursady night.
Buffalo have to win on home ice tonight, then do it again tomorrow night in their little shoppe of horrors in Kanata. Or else....
Next week, the schedule gets downright disgusting for Buffalo. They play playoff teams: Boston, San Jose, and Pittsburgh. Good luck qualifying for the Playoffs if you split this weekend's games and then go 1-2 next week. Two wins in five games, or, four points outta ten ain't gonna git r done, boys! The stated goal on the dry erase board today should be winning 7 points or more out of the next ten. Anything less than that should be considered unacceptable.
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